President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Tochukwu Ezisi (lef), during the press conference at the association’s headquarters in Apapa, Lagos…Monday
From John Silas, Lagos
The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has accused four other freight forwarding associations in the maritime sector of sabotaging the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, the NAGAFF National President, Tochukwu Ezisi, said the rival associations were venting political vendetta on the CRFFN in a calculated attempt to derail the federal government’s reforms in the maritime sector.
The accused include the pioneer Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC), Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN), and National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA).
Against this background, NAGAFF urged the CRFFN to consider deregistering the four associations and to formally request the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to withdraw their certificates of incorporation to safeguard national interest and restore order within the freight forwarding sector.
Commending the CRFFN’s performance in less than a year under Kingsley Igwe’s leadership as exceptional, Ezisi said that Igwe had significantly diversified the council’s funding sources beyond the Practitioner’s Operating Fee (POF).
These including the training of 1,000 freight forwarders in 2025, with 300 already successfully trained, and the introduction of vital digital reforms, he noted. He added that through the minister’s support fort the CRFFN, the administration is restoring professionalism and national service to freight forwarding in Nigeria.
However, Ezisi insisted that NAGAFF would no longer remain silent as rival freight forwarding bodies, which he described as “a cabal of opportunistic actors” drag the profession into disrepute.
Citing the other associations’ refusal to pay the POF following the recent court judgement which nullified its collection by CRFFN or any other agency, NAGAFF accused them of seizing the judgment to undermine the CRFFN even though aware that the council had appealed the ruling and filed a stay of execution.
Ezisi said it is ironic and shameful that the Chairman of NCMDLCA, Lucky Amiwero, who secured the judgment, has disassociated from the way it is now being exploited it, stating that it smacks of opportunism, political desperation and lack of consistency.
According to him, ANLCA in particular has a long history of hostility towards the CRFFN, including efforts to push a counter-bill in the National Assembly to render it ineffective, just as it had challenged several past CRFFN elections in court in what he called “a consistent rebellion against regulatory order.”
Ezisi insisted that the latest crisis has nothing to do with the rule of law or professional integrity but was rather driven by resentment over the appointment of Igwe, who was a former secretary of NAGAFF, as CRFFN registrar.
According to him, “his emergence is not the legal problem they claim; it is their political headache. They have failed to stop him professionally, so now they have turned to litigation as a weapon of vendetta.
“These associations have continually failed in their statutory financial obligations to the council, yet they are the loudest voices questioning its legitimacy. Their credibility is in tatters, and their actions are grossly irresponsible.”
On the other hand, he ANLCA and NCMDLCA to urgently reform their outdated operational structures and comply with the provisions of the new Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Act 2023 if they must continue to benefit from its regulatory system.
